Southwold brewer Adnams has worked with Marks & Spencer (M&S) to create three new beers using the national high street retailer’s surplus products.
The beers, made using surplus M&S British bread, are marketed under the name ‘Used our Loaf’
Triple English Hop Southwold Pale Ale, Earl Grey Pale Ale and Raspberry Fruit Beer are now available in selected Marks and Spencer stores and all three beers will be available online at M&S shortly.
The Suffolk brewer has worked with the chain for a number of years, making well over a dozen beers for the supermarket in various formats. The Used our Loaf beers are made using surplus bread from the retailer’s sandwich producer, which previously went into animal feed.
Head brewer Fergus Fitzgerald said they were ‘very proud’ to work M&S, whose values around sustainability align ‘perfectly’ with those of Adnams.
“We loved the idea of using a surplus product and it’s allowed our brewing team to create three exciting new beers,” he said.
Bread is made from grains such as barley, wheat and rye, which are the same raw materials used to make beer. Inspired by the brilliant work by Toast Ale, Marks and Spencer and the Adnams teamed up to create the first beer using surplus bread for a UK supermarket.
The first brew was created using around 700 kilograms of surplus bread and added three times as much malted barley. Each beer then uses different hops at various stages of the brewing process to ensure the perfect level of bitterness and aromas.
As with all Adnams beers, at the end of the process, once all the sugars have been extracted, the grains, bread and hops are sent away to be reused as animal feed so there is no wastage.
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